Manticore Games Receives $15m Investment From Epic Games

? New Funding

• California-based Manticore Games, the developer, and operator of MMO PC game creator’s platform has raised $15m in the funding round led by Epic Games

• The funding will go towards further development of CORE platform and the official beta launch (Alpha build was released in March 2019)

• Manticore Games is trying to build the metaverse, which is of particular interest to Epic Games given recent announcements by CEO Tim Sweeney

• Manticore Games was established by industry veterans that worked in such companies as Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Respawn, Xfire, Roblox, Trion Worlds, Crystal Dynamics, and Zynga

? Previous Rounds

• Founded in 2016, the company has raised $63m up to date including a recently announced round

  • In spring 2017, Manticore games raised $3m in a Seed funding round

  • In December 2017, Manticore raised $15m in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark. BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, Correlation Ventures, CrunchFund, Macro Ventures, SV Angel, and tech entrepreneurs also participated in the round

  • In September 2019, Manticore raised $30m in Series B round from Benchmark, Correlation Ventures, BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, M Ventures, Arrive, Sapphire Sport, Tuesday Capital, and SV Angel

? Product

• Manticore Games have created the CORE — a free platform to create, host, and play PC games made by the community, not unlike what Youtube made for videos or Instagram for photos

• The company strives to create something akin to the metaverse where gamers can be both creators and players, similar to such platforms as Roblox or Dreams

• The platform is built with Unreal Engine 4 (by Epic Games)and supports a fairly easy to understand game development kit of tools, a vast library of assets, and supports various visual styles and game genres

• While the platform is free, it does offer a subscription for a more advanced set of tools

  • Manticore Games also tries out a unique monetization system that would allow game creators to receive payment based on their games’ daily active users per month, though right now the system is still in its testing stage

SOURCES:  VENTUREBEAT, BUSINESSWIRE